MAISON DE KENNEDY

Classic NZ Sponge

🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍 (0/5) Tested by Cass — 50 min · One 20 cm tin

Not made this one yet — no rating.

The Edmonds sponge: a firm sponge, good for trifle or lamingtons, and unchanged in the Edmonds Sure-to-Rise cookery book since the 1930s. Eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and melted butter — that's it. The rise comes entirely from how far you beat the eggs and sugar. Full ribbon stage does all the work; the melted butter enriches without weighing it down. Simple ingredients, one bowl, timing and technique carry it.

Ingredients

Sponge

• 3 Eggs — room temperature
• Pinch Salt
• ¾ cup Caster Sugar
• 1 cup Standard Grade Flour — NZ plain flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 50 g Butter — melted
• ½ tsp Vanilla — optional, not in the Edmonds original (see notes)

To Finish — the classic

• ¼ cup Raspberry or Strawberry Jam
• ¾ cup Cream — softly whipped
• 1 tbsp Icing Sugar — for dusting

Method

1. Prep: Heat the oven to 180°C. Lightly butter a 20 cm square tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Beat the eggs and salt until very foamy — about 1 minute with an electric beater.
3. Sugar gradually: Add the caster sugar in a slow stream, beating very well, and keep beating about 5 minutes until very pale, thick and fluffy — visibly tripled and ribboning off the whisk. This is the whole cake; do not shortcut it.
4. Sift and fold: Sift the flour and baking powder together, then sift them again onto the egg mixture. Fold gently with a metal spoon or spatula — figure-eight, scooping from the bottom. Stop the moment the flour streaks disappear. Over-folding kills the air.
5. Butter last: Fold the melted butter through with about 6 gentle strokes, just until combined. If using vanilla, stir it into the warm melted butter first — never straight into the whipped eggs, where the alcohol will deflate the foam.
6. Bake 25–30 minutes: Pour into the tin and tap once on the bench to pop big bubbles. Done when golden, well risen, and springing back to a light touch. Don't open the oven before 22 minutes.
7. Cool: 10 minutes in the tin, then onto a wire rack. Cool fully before splitting or icing.
8. Finish: Split horizontally. Jam on one half, softly whipped cream on the other. Sandwich together and dust with icing sugar.

Notes

• Source: this follows the Edmonds Sponge Cake as published by Edmonds — 3 eggs, pinch of salt, ¾ cup caster sugar, 1 cup standard grade flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 50 g melted butter. There is no cornflour in an Edmonds sponge. If you see a version calling for cornflour and attributing it to Edmonds, it isn't one.
• Departures from the original: the optional vanilla, and the finishing jam-and-cream split, which is the traditional serve rather than part of the printed recipe. Everything else is as published.
• The ribbon test is the whole recipe. Lift the whisk and drizzle a figure-eight across the surface — the trail should sit on top for a count of three before disappearing. If it sinks straight in, keep beating. This step cannot be rushed.
• Vanilla goes in the butter, never the eggs. The alcohol in extract deflates the foam and the cake won't rise. Stir it into the warm melted butter and fold the two in together.

The tells that ruin it

• Eggs under-whipped — dense, eggy, won't rise properly.
• Over-folding the flour — deflates and turns rubbery.
• Opening the oven before 22 minutes — it collapses.
• Cold eggs — won't reach ribbon stage no matter how long you whip.
• Filling a warm cake — the cream weeps and the jam slides out.

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